Canada behind the eight ball

While electronic prescriptions and record keeping have the potential to make health care more effective and affordable, Canada has been slow to integrate information technology into health care delivery and administration. Compared with Australia, New Zealand and the U.K., Canadian and U.S. doctors are markedly less likely to prescribe electronically.

According to Joel Rodrigues, author of Health Information Systems: Concpets, Methodologies, Tools & Applications, only 8% of doctors in Canada use e-prescriptions compared with 87% in the U.K. and 52% in New Zealand. Similarly, only 14% of Canadian doctors’ offices make use integrated IT systems while an averge of 90% of their counteparts in Australia, the U.K. and New Zealand have integrated IT systems within their offices.

The biggest barrier, according to Infoway’s Richard Alvarez, isn’t the financial burden of IT, but rather the work habits and attitudes of doctors who are reluctant to change their relationships with patients and colleagues by integrating IT into how they diagnose, prescribe, document and communicate.

The good news is that each graduating class of doctors is more comfortable with technology than the last, and the newest Canadian medical school graduates are accustomed to using IT not only at school and work, but in their leisure time, as well. A generation of doctors ready to make technology a seamless part of their medical practices may enable Canada to close the gap.